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Thursday, 8 November 2012

Book club cake of the month...November

How organised am I? We only had our book club meeting last night! Normally it takes me weeks to get the post out. So enjoy this new found diligence because it certainly won't last for long.

Anyway, this month, we read The House Of Mirth by Edith Warton. The story is set in 1890's New York and is about Lily Bart a 29 year old (which meant nearly past it!) but very beautiful woman, who is relatively poor compared to the social circle she moves in, and is reliant on her wealthy friend's patronage. She makes a series of self destructive choices and her life starts to unravel.

We all really enjoyed this book, and felt the story had a universality and wasn't confined to the period and social set that it was written about. There are equally self destructive people today who it could apply to. A few of the group did want to give Lily a good shake and tell her to get a grip, but we all felt sympathiy for her situation and a couple of us had shed some tears by the end of the story.

We gave it a solid 8 with no less than 7.5 and a few 9s.

As the characters in the book are constantly drinking tea, I made Earl grey cupcakes. I added a little piece of shortbread to make tea and biscuits! I am not a tea drinker myself but I found these delicious!

Next month we are having an informal Christmas get-together and may try to read something seasonal.